meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
What Next | Daily News and Analysis

TBD | Why the Vaccine Websites Suck

What Next | Daily News and Analysis

Slate Podcasts

News, News Commentary, Daily News

4.32.4K Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2021

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Most people thought developing the vaccine in record time would be the hard part. That, or shipping millions of doses at subzero temperatures to every corner of the country. But nobody--or, almost nobody--guessed that the biggest barrier between U.S. citizens and vaccination would be … online scheduling.  What went wrong with the vaccine websites? And what will it take to get them right? Guests:  Raphael Lee, director of USDR’s Health Program  Hana Schank, director of Strategy for Public Interest Technology at New America Jessica Allen Host Lizzie O’Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Lailast week, I was on the internet losing my mind.

0:09.0

I was trying to get my mom a COVID vaccine appointment in New York State.

0:12.7

But the website kept crashing, showing error messages.

0:16.4

I'd see an open appointment, and as I clicked on it, it would disappear.

0:21.2

After about five hours of frustration and a little yelling, I saw this one woman on

0:26.2

Twitter who said she was having success booking appointments.

0:30.0

Later, I asked her what her secret was.

0:32.7

I noticed in your email to me, you said you were doing a lot of this in incognito

0:39.0

mode because you'd learned this trick before.

0:41.8

How did you learn that?

0:43.8

Um, this is super dorky, but we, it's totally from booking Disney vacations for my family.

0:53.1

That's Jessica Allen.

0:54.3

She was looking for appointments farther north in New York State than I was, but she had

0:58.2

cracked the system using her Disney booking knowledge.

1:02.2

It used to be that you had to book your dining reservation six months before your trip,

1:07.7

and you had to be on at a specific time in the morning and the dining reservations would

1:12.2

open up and like things are very competitive.

1:15.0

Just being in incognito mode for whatever reason, like it helps give you access to really

1:19.5

what's available.

1:21.5

Here's what it's like to try to get a vaccine appointment in New York State right now.

1:27.9

First, you hit a screen to confirm the person is old enough for frontline worker.

1:32.8

That sort of thing.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Slate Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.